Research shows more and more shoppers choose to conduct site searches with just a single word.

For its recent E-commerce Performance Indicators and Confidence Report (a.k.a. EPIC Report), SLI recently analyzed a global sample of more than 1.5 billion search queries during the last 4 years and found more than half of searchers only use one word. What’s more, over 80% of site searches were two words or less.

In fact, site searches are actually getting shorter over time. Year-over-year, the number of searches with three or more words is decreasing while the number of one-word searches is increasing. In 2013, 24% of searches included three or more words. This year, only 18% have three or more words.

SLI’s EPIC Report supports recent trends indicating shoppers expect relevant results immediately. In other words, if relevancy and personalization are not part of your e-commerce search strategy (and searchers can’t find what they’re looking for with one word), then shoppers will simply move on.

This is why machine learning is absolutely critical in search and where the magic happens. E-commerce search powered by machine learning “learns” from visitors’ search activity to deliver busy shoppers the most relevant results quickly.

The result is a search function that becomes more intuitive and relevant the more it’s used.

Machine learning is driving more personalized shopping experiences where just one word should be all a shopper needs to find what he’s looking for; without it, you risk losing shoppers to another site with a better, faster experience.

For more personalization tips, check out our webinar Predict More Sales with Personalization. The complimentary EPIC Report is available for download.

The e-commerce industry today is at a critical point of transition. Consumers are demanding unique, customizable online shopping experiences. At present many online retailers are struggling to capitalize on this desire.

This is particularly true in the home furnishings sector, which has a number of unique challenges catering to online customers. In the past, home furnishings retailers have done most of their sales through brick and mortar storefronts. Customers prefer to see the specific items they are going to purchase. As such, home furnishing online portals have lagged behind other industries in providing personalized shopping experiences.

Yet in almost no other industry is it as important to create a personalized shopping experience in order to transition browsers into shoppers, and one time shoppers into repeat customers. In this article we’ll discuss some of the ways that home furnishing retailers can accomplish effective e-commerce personalization, while highlighting a few of the common pitfalls that can be seen across the industry.

Implement an intelligent search system with rich autocomplete and filtering options

Legacy searching systems that rely on simple text search terms fail to deliver accurate results in the home furnishing market. When using these types of systems, your customers are more likely to end up with a long list of products that they weren’t looking for. This is a particularly common problem in the home furnishing industry, where customers are more likely to have long and very specific search queries.

With the huge amount of product diversity that exists within the home furnishings market, having a personalization system that utilizes a robust search engine will allow your customers to more quickly and efficiently find the products that they are looking for.

For example, if a customer is searching for a yellow sofa, legacy systems will just pull products where the specific item description has a fabric labeled as yellow.  They could then miss out on products described by the manufacturer as marigold. An intelligent search system would pull this result and others that qualified as yellow, but were not inherently labeled as such.

Don’t ignore the transition from online to storefront shoppers

 While many of your customers may conduct searches on your website to gain some sense of product familiarity, once they narrow down which specific products they are interested in, they will most likely visit your storefront to see the product in person. It is important to cater to these types of customers by creating a multichannel shopping experience. This is a shopping experience that allows for the seamless transition between online and offline shopping.

Accomplishing this requires maintaining consistency between products, brands, and pricing both on- and offline. Commonly in the home furnishing industry, customers will also search for your products on their phones while in your store.

Some home furnishing stores have taken the step to have tablets placed throughout their storefront to serve as points of access for their customers, further collapsing the boundaries between online and in store shopping. As such, having a robust mobile site is essential to the success of your e-commerce personalization deployment.

Rely on a system that provides targeted product recommendations

Your e-commerce personalization software should be able to provide targeted, specific product recommendations. This is the backbone of any e-commerce personalization software. Intuitive product and search systems learn as your customers utilize them.  If a customer places a product in their shopping cart, your software system should be able to use that information to provide more accurate product recommendations.

The same is true for their search history.  With an intelligent, machine-driven product recommendation system in place, your customers are more likely to find relevant products and experience higher conversion rates. Additionally, your system should be able to promote certain products, or suggest related items that you carry that have the highest conversion rate from shoppers to buyers.

Successfully revamping your home furnishing website to provide a personalized shopping experience doesn’t need to be a daunting or painful experience. Utilizing these personalization tips can help you find an e-commerce personalization platform that will meet your needs.

Ultimately, the success of your efforts comes down to having the right tools for the job. Having a platform that integrates comprehensive search functionality, intelligent and machine-driven product recommendations, and allows you to seamlessly transition shoppers from online to in-store shopping will give your company the ability to provide a superior customer experience throughout.

Learn more about SLI’s Personalization technology by reading Announcing SLI ESP: Take Mind Reading to the Next Level.

Imagine that you walk into a store looking for a new shirt. You scan the clothing racks and start your search, sorting through dozens of items. “Wrong style, wrong color – hmmm, these might work.” Then you proceed to the dressing room to narrow your options even further.

After an hour, you’re exhausted but have finally found a shirt that works. Yet sometimes you come up empty-handed, leaving the store with nothing but a whole lot of frustration. Regardless, the process includes a waste of time and energy.

At its core, this is a highly impersonal experience. The store hasn’t done anything to help personalize your shopping experience, and you – the customer – are charged with narrowing down hundreds of items and creating your own personalized experience. Website personalization, on the other hand, does the exact opposite, taking much of the work off the customers’ plates by learning their patterns, likes and dislikes – and eliminating much of the waste. How can this best be accomplished in the apparel e-commerce market?

Web Personalization: A Quick Primer

Website personalization delivers a customized experience to prospective and current customers based on who they are and what they do. That visitor can be brand new or a frequent visitor to the site.

For example, think about a website that requires you to navigate and search through many pages prior to finding the item you desire. This experience is time-consuming and a far cry from delightful. Web personalization is the exact opposite, allowing you to:

• Identify specific attributes of a website visitor. For example, buying intent, location, and other important pieces of data can be isolated and captured.
• Present relevant and timely offers. Once you have behavioral data, you can present the visitor with relevant and timely offers. For example, does he or she love shopping for sandals in the spring? If so, you can display those items during the specific relevant periods.

Saving customers time and energy, however, is not the only reason to incorporate web personalization into your apparel strategy – there is another compelling reason: higher revenue. In fact, 40 percent of consumers report purchasing more from retailers who personalize their shopping experience across channels.

Personalization is no longer a “nice to have” for customers; customers demand it. A Marketo study found that over 78 percent of those surveyed said they would engage with a brand’s offer only if it were related to how they previously interacted with that brand. Which brings us to the next point – the consequences of being impersonal.

The Consequences of Being Impersonal

Not sure whether personalization is worth the rewards? If so, here is another factor to consider. Failing to personalize website content may carry serious risks, such as creating a critical divide between you and your customers.

Retail options that aren’t tailored to customers not only feel impersonal, but they also create disconnection, dissatisfaction and less engagement. In fact, 75 percent of online customers report feeling frustrated with websites when the content doesn’t have anything to do with their interests.

For example, imagine that you meet a new person at a company event. You have a detailed conversion, which includes providing this person with information about where you live, your interests and what’s going on in your life. A couple of weeks later, you meet the same person. Upon meeting again, you reintroduce yourselves. Then you realize the person doesn’t remember you. How do you feel? Probably not great.

This is the equivalent of what happens when apparel brands fail to provide in-depth, personalized experiences. In an instant, the customer feels disconnected from the company. Previously you were engaged, feeling loyal and great about a company; then in a second, all that hard work vanishes.

Many apparel companies are realizing the increasing importance of personalization, yet 95 percent of marketers are stuck in “analysis paralysis,” unsure of the next best move. Or they think that personalized strategies are for larger companies with big teams and high budgets, so they get stuck. The right strategies and tools, however, can quickly help apparel companies of all sizes get “unstuck” as they steadily grow customer loyalty and revenue. But where should you start?

4 Steps to Greater Web Personalization

With so many options for creating greater web personalization, some apparel companies aren’t sure where to start. Which step comes first, and what areas should you focus on when creating these strategies? Here are four e-commerce personalization tactics that will help you get on track!

1. Acquisition

Locating the right customers is a challenge that most companies face. When you invest valuable dollars to attract and capture the interest of potential customers, it’s critical to maximize that ROI. Web personalization ensures that you present the right message at the right time to your buyer. It’s also important to test your strategy so you can determine what works – and what doesn’t.

For example, one way that apparel companies can accomplish this is by pulling together a welcome message for the first-time website visitor. You don’t know anything about that customer – no geographical information, previous buying patterns or preferences. But what you do know is that it’s the customer’s first visit to your website. As a result, you can create a welcome message based on where the customer originated. For example, one company experienced three times the revenue and a six fold boost in leads after launching a welcome message for visitors who came from Pinterest.

The welcome message can also provide an incentive for providing an email address. Instead of a “subscribe message,” the retailer could provide a “welcome message” along with a coupon offer once it has identified the person as new to the site. For example, two minutes into the shopping session, high-end retailer Superette pops up an offer for new site visitors to receive $10 off when they provide their email to sign up for the Superette newsletter.

Once the customer inputs his or her email address, Superette starts sending personalized content and offers to create greater engagement.

2. Engagement

Personalization is the cornerstone of effective engagement. Providing true personalization, however, requires you to capture relevant information and details from your customers. For example, consider the media company Netflix. From the moment you subscribe, they start collecting details about your preferences. After you have watched a movie or television episode, they ask you to rate it. When you do so, they start to truly understand your likes and dislikes and can make more accurate recommendations and boost engagement. Plus, the media provider allows you to create profiles that distinguish your preferences from those of other members of your family, such as your spouse or children.

Distinguishing the various likes of all family members is something that apparel companies can fine-tune in the future if they don’t serve just one demographic but several. For example, go back to the Chef Works example. This retailer sells clothing for men and women. Greater personalization could help determine whom a customer is shopping for so they can serve up relevant offers. Not sure what data to collect? Here are a few items to consider.

• Search terms used. What search terms is the prospect using to arrive at your site? Cataloging these terms will help you understand the types of products and services the person is seeking.
• Referral source. In the example above, a welcome page was developed for those new prospects arriving from Pinterest. Understanding the referral source will help you view customers in context. For example, maybe they arrived from Facebook. If so, that may be how they prefer to receive coupons and offers from your apparel company.
• Number of visits. How many times has the customer visited your website? When arriving at the website, what does he or she do? Perhaps the person adds several items to their cart, then leaves to comparison shop before returning (or not returning if he or she finds something better). All of this data is valuable in understanding customers’ behaviors in context and their buying journeys.
• Pages viewed. Pages viewed provide valuable information about the types of clothing that interest the prospective customer most. For example, do they always search dresses? If so, you can send email alerts when new dress inventory is added, creating higher engagement and personalization.
• Location. Even for online retailers, geolocation data is very useful. For example, let’s say that 50 percent of your customers reside in California, and those customers also include a highly profitable segment. If so, you can offer free shipping to customers by geographic location.

Web personalization allows you to tell your customers “We know you and care about your preferences.” As a result, these customers become more informed about and engaged with your apparel products and offerings.

3. Conversion

Web personalization is a critical stepping stone to closing the deal. When you attract and start engaging with your customers, you’re training them to recognize your apparel brand, feel more loyal and move toward action. And remember, conversions don’t always have to be sales. It can be a customer signing up for your email list or using a website coupon provided as a special offer.

For example, perhaps you created an offer for a specific demographic based on a variety of factors, such as number of purchases, value of purchases and shopping frequency. Maybe it’s a segment of customers who made one large purchase in the past but haven’t shopped since. When they visit your website, you present them with a compelling offer: 50 percent off one apparel item when it is purchased in the next 24 hours.

These types of offers can drive greater conversions and sales through subtle but impactful website personalization.

4. Retention and Cross- or Upselling

Online retailer Amazon is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of retention and cross- and upselling. First of all, the website includes a plethora of personalized cross- and upsells.

Amazon remembers your interests and includes related items in “Inspired by your shopping trends.”

But the site does not stop there. It includes other items, such as:

• More top picks for you
• Items inspired by your shopping trends
• New items for you
• Items recommended for you in specific departments

Plus, they allow you to scroll back in time and check out items you recently viewed. Apparel companies can take a page from Amazon’s playbook and use the above categories to create more in-depth shopping experiences for their customers. For example, even if customers don’t purchase, they can keep track of recently viewed items or view related suggestions in the future.

When you accomplish this, you instantly create a one-on-one conversation with the shopper. You can ask him or her to rate products and then provide even greater personalization in the future based on those details.

Personalization Creates Advocacy

Web personalization puts apparel companies in the perfect position to create long-term loyalty and advocacy. Engaging with customers from the very moment they learn about your company, and throughout the sales cycle, helps you speak to them in a way totally different from ever before. The conversation is no longer one-sided, and customers feel “talked with” rather than “talked at” by the brand. Instead, they’re having a two-way conversation, where the customer is truly heard and understood.

The divide between company and customer is greatly reduced, as the apparel company transforms into a “trusted advisor” that shoppers rely on to make their shopping experience more efficient and delightful. As a result, the “mediocre” shopping experience of the past gives way to experiences where the customer truly feels known by the brand.

What Is SLI?

At SLI, our machine-learning platform offers the most advanced technology available to accelerate your e-commerce and continuously delight customers at every click.

For more tips, check out our platform guide, “SLI Advanced Technology and Infrastructure Overview.”

One of the most effective ways to set your company and brand apart from the competition while increasing your bottom line is by creating a personalized, unique shopping experience.  This fact is especially salient in the current e-commerce apparel industry, where a glut of competition and fast moving companies require concerted and ongoing efforts to create distinction, whilst also prioritizing customer experience.

In this article I’ll outline a few of the best practices for website personalization in the apparel industry. In particular, I’ll highlight some of the top features of website personalization software, and how you can leverage those features to create a dynamic, engaging shopping experience.

Dynamic product recommendations

Providing a personalized shopping experience for your customers is largely centered around one thing: accurate product recommendations at the right times. To accomplish this, relying on an e-commerce personalization software program that is automated with machine learning is the only true viable option dynamically merchandising as your customers shop.

Consider using merchandising banners to provide targeted product recommendations to your customers throughout their shopping journey. Based on what they are viewing, what’s in their cart, and past search queries and purchases, your software can generate tailored product recommendations.

Product recommendations generated in this fashion have a higher conversion rate from browsers to buyers, lead to larger purchases per visit, and increase transitions from one-time shoppers to repeat customers.

Brand continuity

One critical, but sometimes overlooked aspect of creating a custom, unique shopping experience is maintaining brand continuity throughout your site. From search result to landing page to product page, your site should have a consistent look and feel throughout.

This approach is more aesthetically pleasing while giving your customers seamless transitions between pages. Prioritizing brand continuity throughout your personalization implementation is an important step in cultivating both brand awareness, and ultimately increased brand loyalty.

 Intelligent search functionality

Merely placing a search box with a magnifying glass on it in the corner of your site is no longer adequate for e-commerce markets. Users require an intuitive, self-correcting product discovery layer which begins as the first few characters are entered.

Automatically incorporate trending and seasonal products into search results, then configure your search to act as a personal shopper for your visitors by curating a relevant selection in real-time based on their activity.

Lastly, your search engine should include navigation assistance such as product filtering by brand or type, so that users can quickly and easily navigate to broad or specific categories.  Each of these features is critical to transforming your customer’s shopping experience from bland to unique.

Geolocation for products

In the apparel industry, geographic differences in fashion trends can have a measurable impact on your bottom line. Customers in the Northeastern United States during December may want significantly different products than their counterparts in the Southwest.

Ensuring that your personalized shopping experience accounts for these differences in location requires enabling geolocation for your products. Geolocation can also take into account regional differences in price, style, or preference.

With geolocation enabled, your intelligent searching system will recommend products based on where the customer is conducting the search from. This will allow you to always provide the most relevant search results, and more accurately predict the products that customers are searching for.

Bespoke landing pages

Creating unique and engaging landing pages for your products is not only a personalization best practice in the apparel industry, it is also an important aspect of Search Engine Optimization. With the right website personalization software in place, creating dynamic, unique landing pages for products can be accomplished easily and effectively.

Customized landing pages offer a cost-effective way to create a unique, personalized shopping experience that will help your apparel company stand out from the competition. Further, by using this technique you can integrate your merchandising team into your website personalization efforts. The result is a more aesthetically pleasing, customized shopping experience.

Download the SLI ESP™ product brief to learn more about how website personalization can help grow your e-commerce business.

Website personalization software can transform a stagnate shopping experience into one that is dynamic and unique. Online shoppers today expect a personalized shopping experience on every visit.

In the online retail environment, delivering on this expectation can mean the difference between success and failure. But choosing the right e-commerce personalization software for your company can be a daunting process. With so many options on the market that offer varying degrees of features and support, it’s worth taking a hard look at what you need, and what you’ll get out of personalization software.

In this article we’ll discuss some of the key features you should consider when choosing e-commerce personalization software. While this list will by no means be exhaustive, it will help you zero in on critical features that your personalization software package should include, and hopefully lead you to make a more informed, intelligent decision.

 Robust, machine-driven learning

Is the foundation of your potential e-commerce personalization software based on an intelligent, machine-driven learning system? If not, it won’t be able to deliver search results and product recommendations tailored to your shopper and that continually improve without your intervention.

Machine-driven personalization software can more quickly and accurately assess your customer’s needs and provide dynamic search and navigation results, as well as product recommendations based on past shopping history, search history, and seasonal trends.

Machine-driven analytics are necessary to provide the unique shopping experience your customers’ desire in real-time.

Customizable for your needs

Your website personalization software should be customizable for your specific industry and needs. One-size-fits-all software packages fail to deliver the customizability that allows consistent application in different markets.

A customizable software package allows you to tune your personalization software in the ways that best serve you. The result is a sleeker, more tailored software package that offers better support for your products and brand.

Powerful navigation options

Simply having a search function on your site is no longer adequate for providing the customized shopping experience your customers demand. Seek out e-commerce personalization software that includes smart site navigation tools to help your customers quickly and efficiently find the products they want. Intelligent search functionality that provides targeted, personalized product recommendations is a key feature that will allow you to step past the stale search functionality of your competitors.

Additionally, website personalization software that offers smart filtering options will increase ease of site navigation, both for desktop and mobile users. Filtering options should not only include filtering by product, but also filtering by brand or similar products, which will result in larger transactions per visit and higher customer retention.

Desktop and mobile support

It is critical that your e-commerce personalization software includes support for both desktop and mobile shoppers. With more shopping being done on mobile or handheld devices than ever before, it is imperative that your E-Commerce platform taps into these markets.

Having one personalization software provider for both also creates greater continuity between shopping experiences on both types of devices. This allows your customers to have a consistent, customized shopping experience regardless of the device they are accessing your content from.

Ensure that your personalization software platform includes navigation tools that aid both users. Autocomplete is especially important, as screen sizes and on-screen keyboards become smaller and smaller, and shoppers are less likely to type out lengthy search terms to find the products they want.

Cloud-based systems

Seek out an e-commerce personalization platform that relies on cloud-based infrastructure.  Cloud-based software analytics and hardware provides additional redundancy in case of hardware failures or system outages. This ensures that your e-commerce site will have greater depth and breadth of coverage, and that you are less likely to be affected by local issues such as a power outage or ISP failure.

Secondly, cloud-based systems give your personalization software the ability to easily expand with your company’s needs.  If you experience a pre-holiday rush of sales, cloud-based systems can meet the demand for short-term expansion. If you are experiencing rapid growth as an e-commerce site, you will be secure in knowing that your personalization software will be able to keep up with your growth over time.

Both of these factors combined result in a greater continuity of service for your customers, both on a day-to-day basis and in the years to come.

As you search for the e-commerce personalization software that is right for your business, look for one that provides robust site search based on machine learning. For help, read our white paper, 10 Top Considerations for Choosing a Site Search Provider.